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Old Fashioned

Cocktail history is a little fuzzy (no big surprise, huh?). As far as we know the Old Fashioned was the first cocktail. Hundreds of years later, it’s still an awesome drink. While this drink has gotten many embellishments over the years, the classic recipe is just spirit, sugar, and bitters. But you can do the “sugar” part a few different ways and still have the traditional tipple.

If you use a sugar cube, you’ll be getting one teaspoon of sugar in your drink. An easier (and smoother) way to get the same amount of sugar is to use a teaspoon of rich simple syrup. The “rich” just means you make the syrup by cooking 2 parts sugar with 1 part water. An even smoother way is to use a teaspoon of gomme syrup, which is a rich simple syrup with a little gum Arabic added as an emulsifier. All three drinks will be fantastic, but the gomme will add a silky texture and fullness to the drink that will make it even more luxurious. You can get the recipe for gomme syrup from my post on Serious Eats.

Whether you make gomme or not, you can (and should!) make yourself and Old Fashioned.

2 thoughts on “Old Fashioned”

I’ve been searching all over in an effort to replicate an Old Fashioned I had a few years ago. It had brandy soaked fruit in it such as oranges, pineapple, and maybe cherries. It was not particularly sweet, but it sure had a punch! Do you know of a recipe like this? Thanks!